The Los Angeles Lakers are most likely going to make some sort of move before the NBA trade deadline this season. LeBron James-led teams are known for making adjustments at the deadline and with a slow start, the Lakers are going to be looking for any help that they can get.
Some of that help could come from the Indiana Pacers. A report from Shams Charania and Bob Kravitz of The Athletic indicated that the Pacers are receptive to trading Myles Turner, Domantas Sabonis and Caris LeVert, signaling a potential rebuild.
We already broke down three potential trade packages that the Lakers could offer the Pacers when the news was first reported. One player who we did not include in the packages was Jeremy Lamb, who the Lakers have reportedly expressed interest in.
There are several things to know about the Los Angeles Lakers rumors surrounding a Jeremey Lamb trade.
Whether it be the actual trade package itself or the kind of player that Lamb is and how he would fit on the Los Angeles Lakers, this is your resource to know everything you need to know about the Lakers potentially trading for Lamb.
A deal won’t happen until December 15, at the very earliest, as the team cannot trade recently-signed players until that date. But what about the deal itself? What might it look like? Let’s dive into it.
The trade that the Los Angeles Lakers would have to send to get Jeremy Lamb:
Jeremy Lamb is not someone who has a lot of trade value and that is why the Los Angeles Lakers are probably interested in adding him. The team is not going to have to send Talen Horton-Tucker in order to get him and nor should they. That would be a bad trade for the Lakers.
The only real assets that the Pacers can realistically ask for is second-round picks and the Lakers can afford to trade up to two picks. One second-round pick or two does not really matter much, as the important thing here is how many players the Lakers would have to trade.
MUST-READ: Reasons for and against trading Talen Horton-Tucker
To make this trade financially possible, the Lakers would have to trade Kendrick Nunn alongside two contracts. Nunn and one minimum contract falls $850,000 short of what the Lakers would have to send out in order to make it work, meaning the team has to add another player.
A potential package could be Nunn, Kent Bazemore, Avery Bradley and a second-round pick (or two) for Lamb. The Lakers would not only add Lamb in this situation but would also add an extra roster spot to sign a buyout player (Bradley is a release candidate) without having to pay more tax by releasing a guaranteed contract.
This is not a massive hurdle for LA but it certainly is part of the equation. As far as Lamb’s contract is concerned, he is on an expiring deal.
Jeremy Lamb’s potential fit on the Los Angeles Lakers:
While Jeremy Lamb is not someone who is going to revolutionize the Lakers and be the x-factor to the team winning the NBA Championship, he is someone who can actually have a pretty big impact on the team by improving a serious area of weakness.
The purple and gold went from one of the best defensive teams in the league to one of the worst defensive teams in the league this season. While Anthony Davis is elite defensively, Talen Horton-Tucker is the team’s only above-average perimeter defender. Lamb would be the team’s second above-average perimeter defender.
Lamb is far from being an elite defender and is not going to play to the defensive level of Alex Caruso. However, he absolutely can produce on defense on the same level as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who know we realize was a huge part of the team defense.
In fact, Lamb’s best comparison in LA would be KCP. The two players are very similar and Lamb would essentially have the same role on the Lakers that KCP had before being traded to the Washington Wizards.
Since the start of the 2020-21 season, Lamb has shot 40.3% from three on 3.4 attempts per game, averaging 9.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. His combined Box Plus/Minus since the start of last season is 1.7 and he averages .137 win shares per 48 minutes.
Compare that to KCP, who was very similar in LA. In his last two seasons in the purple and gold, Caldwell-Pope shot 39.8% from three on 3.9 attempts per game, averaging 9.5 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. His combined BPM was actually worse at -0.8 while he averaged .104 win shares per 48 minutes.
The Lakers would essentially be getting someone who is on par, if not slightly better, than KCP was the previous two seasons in LA. For the price of some throwaway contracts and a future second-round pick or two, Lamb would more than be worth it.